Monday, September 22, 2014

The Scrappy Blog Tour

If you enjoy looking at scrappy blogs, you may have noticed some designers participating in a blog tour that is passed from one to another to share the inspiration. I was super honored when my sweet and talented friend, Madeline Fox passed it on to me. Visit Madeline's blog here to see her beautiful work. She has a real eye for color and her title work often great fun. Everyone finds different inspiration when looking at layouts, but the one thing that I have always been jealous of with Madeline, is her titles. I think its the way she combines different alphas, die cut words, and embellishments for a really unique design. It goes from being a title to an embellishment. Ok now on with the questions:1. What am I working on right now?I have to admit that I am actually finishing up the last couple of pages of my December Daily Album from last year. LOL! As the new fun holiday papers have been coming out recently, I felt like I had to get it finished now or it wouldn't happen at all. Hopefully I can get some ok photos and share it with you all soon. That is one difficult project to photograph!

2. How long does it take me to create a project?Oh, this one had me laughing because I was thinking about Madeline's hilarious answer. I am guilty of being a pretty slow scrapper too. I usually say that it takes me about 4 - 5 hours for one layout. I rarely finish one without walking away and coming back the next day or at least later in the day. I will say that I do not start more than one layout at a time. I have been known to let a project like December Daily sit unfinished for months, but not layouts.

3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?I love so many things, but number one is always patterned paper. That's not really a fun answer so I will tell you about the embellishments that I am loving lately. The first thing I thought of was GOLD, White, and Vellum. The sparkle of gold just adds that extra something and because of the years of dark papers and of course dark photos, I am loving adding alot of white and vellum to my layouts lately. I really am addicted to the Foiled Vellum stack by DCWV.

I also love sequins! The obsession started when I was a kid making ornaments with my grandmothers, so I am enjoying that they are a current trend.

4. How does my writing/creative process work? First I have to clear off the mess from the last layout. I have to put it all away. Next I always start with the photos and most of the time that means at least one good old full sized 4x6" photo and maybe a second or third photo. I want to see my photos so most of the time they are not going to be tiny. I then pull out paper collections and choose about 5 - 8 patterned papers that I think will work. Next I go to my embellishment lamp thingie and browse for coordinating goodies. I always choose too many and that's why there is that clean up part before each page. :) 5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?I totally get my inspiration from mfg and designer blogs and Pinterest. Well I "borrow" ideas from many of my scrappy friends and I love Skype scrapping with a couple of my bffs so they can tell me when to stop adding and call it done, or how to fix a page when it just doesn't feel right. If I am still blocked, I go to my sketches (SketchSavvy) because even if I have done a sketch once, if I liked it, I might do it again another direction or something.

6. What is my signature style?oh I really don't know what to call it. You guys tell me. I mean, I have noticed that I like my photos to be linear and I rarely place papers or photos on angle unless its in layering a bunch of papers under a photo. I like lighter layouts to allow the photos to pop, and I tend to have a horizontal strip or block of paper to ground my designs. I am also trying to make my pages less chunky so that they will take up less space in my albums. Some of my older layouts are so crazy thick or dark, and if I could, I would go back and mat every single photo with white cardstock! Those days of not matting photos had them disappearing on my pages.

Here are some of my recent faves:

Thanks for hanging with me!

And
now it's my turn to pick someone who inspires me to continue with this
Scrappy Blog Tour! I have volunteered my good friend and crazy impressive scrapbooker, Nancy Burke to be the next stop on this inspirational blog tour.....mostly because she is on holiday and can't say no. LOL!!!! No, seriously, she is uber talented and has been inspiring me for many many years. She is a great friend and has taught me most of what I know about the paper crafting industry. Her layouts always have whimsy...ok I am not sure what word describes it, but in my head, the word is whimsy. (little fun stuff?) Her photos are gorgeous and then she picks the best papers and on every layout there is something I want to copy so to me, that is perfect. Visit Nancy's Blog here and just take time to scroll and scroll! Also here is a link to her Scraptastic Gallery and A Cherry On Top gallery. Also check out her creative hand lettering book HERE

SO fun! Love reading about your "process" and favorites. Oh, and I need you to teach me how to use sequins! I love them, especially how you use them, but I'm not comfortable with them on my own pages! I just don't know what to DO with them. lol